Hook, Line, and Sinker.

Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies

September 2, 2011

I’m just gonna throw this out there. I don’t trust people who don’t like Nutella. It doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t care if you don’t like nuts. This isn’t nuts. It’s NUTELLA. I was introduced to Nutella very late in life. I was in Paris, and I had some sort of Nutella filled goodness from a bakery. I was hooked.

Has anyone seen the Nutella commercials on TV recently? They make me laugh. They talk about it being a healthy breakfast food for your kids. Just spread it on some whole wheat toast– it’s got nuts and skim milk in it. It’s TOTALLY healthy. I’m not falling for that nonsense, but I did fall for these cookies. Hard. This recipe came straight out of my Giada de Laurentis “New Italian Favorites” cookbook. She says her grandmother used to make them and refer to them as biscotti. Which makes no sense. Biscotti literally translates to twice baked. These are only baked once. So hate to break it to you Granny De Laurentis, but you’re wrong. But no matter what you call them. These are magical. Make them now.

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup chocolate hazelnut spread (NUTELLA!)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped toasted, skinless hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In another medium bowl, using an electric mixer, cream the butter, Nutella, and both sugars together for about 4 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until smooth, about 1 minute. Using a rubber spatula, stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Fold in the hazelnuts.

Using a spoon, drop spoonfuls of the dough onto the cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Use a metal spatual to transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool.